Still Building the Dream of Equality and Peace

Sunday, August 28, marks the forty-eighth anniversary of the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” It was at that march and rally that Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech. The speech was given at the Lincoln Memorial to a gathering of 250,000 concerned Americans, as millions more watched on television.

A dedication ceremony of the King Memorial, the “Stone of Hope,” located on the National Mall was planned for Sunday, now postponed (date to-be-announced later) because of hurricane Irene. The King Memorial honors MLK’s life and the sacrifices he, but also his supporters, so unselfishly made for all Americans. A celebration planned “to honor his national and international contributions to world peace through non-violent social change.”

Eugene Robinson describes that event in 1963 as “one of the watershed moments of 20th century America.” He reminds us that the idea and impetus for the march came from A. Philip Randolph, vice president, AFL-CIO, who was one the most important labor leaders in our nation’s history. Dr. King’s message was one of justice and equality, “meaningful employment” was the rallying cry of the event.

In 1967, an equally important speech, yet controversial even among liberal supporters and the black community, was given by Dr. King, Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence. In that speech, he not only spoke passionately about specifically ending the Vietnam War, but all war: “A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, “This way of settling differences is not just. And so, such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.”

Today, we have unacceptably high unemployment. Today, we have not one but two wars we are engaged in as well as the conflict in Libya. Today, Income inequality in the United States is greater than the European Union, the United Kingdom and even falls behind countries such as Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Uganda and Jamaica. And today, the nuts and bolts of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, racism is still front and center. “This truth is everywhere. “

All the issues that Dr. King was riled up over then still blatantly exist today. And so, on the issues of employment, inequality, racism, and war, Robinson’s words apply to all; “. . . we haven’t just failed to make sufficient progress. We’ve stopped trying.”

Gwen Ifill writes in PBS’s Washington Week, “When it comes to race relations, should we be pessimistic or optimistic? Is it more important to focus on how far we’ve come, or how far we have to go?”

On all fronts, the United States has a long, long way to go. Unquestionably, that should be America’s focus.

If the United States is going to be the nation we proclaim it to be, we really don’t have a choice. These things cannot remain a dream or wishful thinking. One cannot build a dream. Instead, as Mahatma Gandhi so poignantly said, “we must become the change we want to see.”


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